Electric Fields - Determining Magnitude and Direction?

Question

Being given the electric field of 2.4 x 10^4 N/C, how would you determine the magnitude and direction of the electric force on a proton and an electron. Would the magnitudes be the same because they have the same charge?

Answer 1

Yup. The force of an electric field is given by F = qE. Since the proton and electron have the same magnitude of charge q, the force will be the same. The proton, with its positive charge +q, will experience a force that pushes it in the direction of the electric field, while the electron, with its negative charge -q, will experience a force which moves it in the direction opposite to the field direction.

Answer 2

Electric Field is, by definition, a vector quantity. This means it has a magnitude AND a direction.

The field extends outward from the charged particle in all directions.

The field around a negatively-charged particle pulls positively-charged particles toward it and pushes negatively-charged particles away; similarly, a positive-charged particle will push positive charges away and pull negative charges toward it.

Since the charges you've given (one proton, one electron) are equal in magnitdue but opposite in polarity, the magnitude of the field affecting them will be the same. The direction of the field is dependent on the polarity of the particle (proton, electron) AND the polarity of the particle generating the field.

Answer 3

I did the exact same thing and got it wrong. My charges were : Q1= -8e-6 and Q2= 5e-6 with radius= .01.